Obama, Lugar held by Russian officials

August 29, 2005|By From news services.

MOSCOW — A plane carrying Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) was detained for several hours Sunday while trying to leave Russia, before being permitted to leave the country for Ukraine, according to spokesmen for the lawmakers.

The senators, who had been visiting storage sites for weapons of mass destruction, were held at an airport in the Ural Mountain city of Perm for several hours but were allowed to leave after talks between U.S. and Russian officials. Russian officials refused to let the plane take off for three hours and insisted on boarding it, Intelligence Committee Chairman Lugar's spokesman, Andy Fisher, said in a message sent from a personal messaging device Sunday afternoon. "They did not. The border patrol finally got orders to let us go," Fisher said.

"We were treated just fine," he said.

A spokesman for Obama also confirmed the plane's arrival in Ukraine.

The spokesmen did not have information on the nature of the dispute that resulted in the hold-up. Telephone calls to the Russian border guard service and Foreign Ministry were not answered Sunday evening.